Month: November 2017

Apologies for the lack of posts over the last few weeks. I have not gone away. We have builders at home, who have turned everything upside down, and next week it will get worse when the roof comes off and the back of the house is knocked down. Thank goodness we got the central heating fixed before that happened.

In the studio all I’m doing is repetitive glaze tests and packing parcels to send to galleries before Christmas.

I hope to get to the Modigliani exhibition at Tate Modern in due course. He is a painter I have never liked, and hearing the curator talk about his social circumstances and bohemian life reinforced my suspicion that he is artistically negligible. But I keep an open mind.

I’ve been exhibiting my ceramics at the Old Chelsea Town Hall over the weekend at the craft fair Handmade in Britain. Down the street in Kings Road is “The Chelsea Potter”, the pub named in honour of William De Morgan, who used to work in the area.

The old town hall was built in 1908, and in the café is a fireplace with pretty Delft tiles (pictured). Where do they come from? Are they antique Dutch tiles, which they certainly look like, or are they reproductions? I don’t know of any English pottery that made Delft-style tiles c.1900, so my guess is they’re Dutch, especially as the Dutch, according to Alan Caiger-Smith, made 800 million of them between 1600 and 1800.

I’ve just finished packing for Handmade in Britain at Chelsea Old Town Hall, the renowned, high-end contemporary craft and design fair which is being held over the weekend. I’m launching a new range of tableware there, inspired by Mid Century Modern and made in three toning colours, yellow, grey and turquoise. Above are three espresso cups from the range.

Chelsea has been the location for pre-Christmas craft fairs for many years, once run by the Crafts Council, but relaunched ten years ago by Handmade, who are now established promoters.